Application of the Ultrasound Research Method in Otorhinolaryngology and Diseases of the Head and Neck Organs

Abstract

Despite the fact that otorhinolaryngologists have been looking for a solution to the problem of chronic tonsillitis for a very long time, it remains unresolved. The prevalence of chronic tonsillitis is not decreasing, but rather increasing. Diseases of the tonsils are characteristic primarily of the child and adult working population. Chronic tonsillitis attracts attention not only as an independent disease, but also as a cause of frequent local and especially systemic complications, which number more than 100. All these facts indicate the unresolved and urgent problem of chronic disease of the palatine tonsils.

In the diagnosis of diseases of the neck organs, one of the most common methods is ultrasound. It has a number of significant advantages over other methods, such as high sensitivity and specificity, the ability to detect minor changes in organs, non-invasiveness of the study, painlessness, availability, and absence of ionizing radiation.

Ultrasound diagnostics in the neck area is widely used and actively studied in acute inflammatory-purulent pathology (paratonsillar abscesses, phlegmon), in pathology of the larynx and trachea, salivary and thyroid glands, as well as in the metastasis of malignant neoplasms to the lymph nodes.